On Sun, Apr 08, 2001 at 12:23:41AM -0700, Tim Rightnour wrote:
> 
> On 07-Apr-01 Perry E. Metzger wrote:
> > Wasabi might be willing to pick up the effort associated with NetBSD
> > presence at shows. We did (IMHO) a reasonable job doing that at Linux
> > World in New York and could conceivably do it elsewhere. Increased
> > profile for NetBSD is generally in our corporate interest.
> 
> Speking completely for myself..  but something seems wrong with this..
> depending on what your intention of "pick up the effort" was.
> 
> If you mean, help defray the costs, so people like Charles and other volunteers
> could man the booths, I think thats wonderful, and is to be commended.

Agreed.  And though I've heard before from Perry that he was willing to
do things like pay for some CD production, when it actually came to the
details, he was steadfast that they would all have `Wasabi' printed in
large letters on them.  The project is NetBSD, not Wasabi NetBSD -- and
I'm certainly not going to spend my own time and money to help
advertise Wasabi.

> If you mean, Wasabi should officially, or soley represent NetBSD at these
> shows, I have a problem with that.  You are running a business, your needs out
> of shows such as these may differ from that of the project.  I don't believe
> that you could or should try to work both sides of the fence, as a number of
> conflicts of interest might present themselves.

I think there's a more fundamental philosophical issue, as well.
Actively causing people to equate `NetBSD' and `Wasabi' is *definitely*
the wrong thing for the NetBSD Project.  One of the great strengths of
NetBSD has been that it sailed through massive shifts in the
developers' (and founders'!) lives, massive shifts in market focus, and
the rise and fall of the `new economy' -- mostly without a scratch.  To
see it become dependent on the success of a tiny commercial entity, and
particularly one whose business plan is completely unknown, would be
sad, even if not eventually fatal.

Also, the conflict of interest has already started to sprout up.  I had
one person volunteer to help at ALS last year, but then get called away
by Wasabi to do something else, leaving me to do the whole thing
myself.  Suffice it to say that this was not exactly helpful.